The Big 12 coaches picked Arizona to repeat, and they barely picked them. Twelve first-place votes and 220 points for the Wildcats. Four first-place votes and 214 for Houston. Six points, in a 16-team league, is a shrug. Kansas (186), Iowa State (181), and Texas Tech (180) are the next cluster, and they are closer to each other than Arizona is to Houston.
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GameSim ran only Arizona and Houston. Neutral site, 20 simulations with each team on the home side, 2027, injuries off. The 40 games split 20-20. One sample was Houston 64.4-63.6 (11-9). The other was Arizona 63.9-63.6 (11-9). The combined averages were Houston 64.0, Arizona 63.8. The coaches left six points between these teams. The sim left two-tenths of a point.
Arizona's case is the roster that just swept the regular season and the tournament and reached the Final Four. Motiejus Krivas is the preseason player of the year. As a junior he averaged 10.4 points and 8.2 rebounds, blocked 73 shots, and Arizona held opponents to 36.7 percent when he was on the floor. Ivan Kharchenkov, a sophomore, joins him on the preseason all-league team after a freshman year of 10.4 points on 49 percent shooting. Houston matched Arizona with two all-league picks of its own, Dedan Thomas Jr. and Joseph Tugler. The coaches also put a unanimous tag on Texas Tech's JT Toppin and BYU's Robert Wright III, which is the rest of the contender list in one line.
Two awards landed outside the top two, and both matter for how this league usually goes. Arizona State's Paulius Murauskas, in from Saint Mary's after an 18.4-point, 7.6-rebound season, is the preseason newcomer. Kansas freshman Tyran Stokes, the No. 1 prospect on the ESPN, 247Sports, and On3 boards, is the preseason freshman, the second year in a row that honor has sat in Lawrence. UCF, 13th at 55 points, is where the coaches put the Knights. The poll does not have a mystery No. 1. It has a first place that Houston can see from the second tee.
| Poll | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona (12) | 220 |
| 2 | Houston (4) | 214 |
| 3 | Kansas | 186 |
| 4 | Iowa State | 181 |
| 5 | Texas Tech | 180 |
| 6 | BYU | 148 |
| 7 | TCU | 137 |
| T8 | Cincinnati | 116 |
| T8 | West Virginia | 116 |
| 10 | Baylor | 102 |
| 11 | Oklahoma State | 98 |
| 12 | Arizona State | 75 |
| 13 | UCF | 55 |
| T14 | Colorado | 34 |
| T14 | Kansas State | 34 |
| 16 | Utah | 24 |
First-place votes in parentheses. Source: Big 12 coaches poll, Oct. 14.
